LOS ANGELES (AP) — Dana White and his UFC fighters have been waiting for Saturday night for more than a decade.
Mixed martial arts’ transformation from a banned sport into a billion-dollar enterprise will reach a new peak when the UFC’s heavyweight title bout appears in network prime time on Fox. White, the UFC’s president and its tireless one-man promotional machine, believes millions of uninitiated viewers will get their first looks at MMA when unbeaten champion Cain Velasquez faces Brazil’s Junior Dos Santos on a one-hour program.
White already calls it the biggest fight in UFC history, saying the bout will set a tone for the UFC’s landmark seven-year television deal with Fox Sports starting in January. Yet the fighters say they don’t feel any extra pressure to be spectacular.
